A few weeks ago, he was a
self-described “burrito slinger” at a Columbus lunchtime joint.

Two nights ago, Josh Krajcik sang his way into instant online buzz along with high praise from
curmudgeon Simon Cowell — which might ultimately make him a key challenger on the inaugural
stateside season of the reality show
The X Factor.

The Grandview Heights resident, who works the counter at the Downtown restaurant Cinco, wowed a
four-critic panel (including ex-
American Idol judge Paula Abdul, record-label executive L.A. Reid and British pop singer
Cheryl Cole) plus a live audience during a spring taping at the Sears Centre Arena near
Chicago.

His audition — a seven-minute segment also featuring his mother, Wooster-area resident Lisa Pim,
in which the musician maintained his usual laid-back form — was shown Wednesday night on Fox.

“When I’m done working, I smell like onions,” he joked. “It’s sick.”

Cowell seemed skeptical about the contender’s rumpled, unshaven facade and even more so about
his unlikely song choice: the Etta James standard
At Last.

Yet a soulful, gravelly showing earned Krajcik thumbs up across the board — as well as online
comparisons to Joe Cocker; Stevie Ray Vaughan; and, probably because of the rapturous crowd
reaction, overnight British sensation Susan Boyle.

A fixture on the central Ohio scene since forming the Josh Krajcik Band in 2004, he once backed
Ohio-born rock singer Gran Bel Fisher — with his group booked on
Jimmy Kimmel Live! and at the high-profile Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in
Tennessee, among other gigs.

Krajcik later accompanied Fisher on more intimate club tours, which included opening spots with
A-list artists such as Corinne Bailey Rae and the Fray.

The career setbacks represented by the departure of Fisher from Hollywood Records and the quiet
reception for the recent second Krajcik release,
Atavistic, were felt deeply.